he doesn’t want to let the facial hair go.
There are ten other people seated in the room for today’s board meeting, but I don’t care if I have witnesses, I’m ready to stab my eyeballs with my ballpoint pen if Pierson doesn’t shut the fuck up soon.
The board has been arguing over these investment opportunities for hours. Correction—Pierson has been arguing.
You’d think as the owner and CEO of Knight Enterprises, I wouldn’t have to deal with shit like this, but that’s not how it always works. I seek approval from my advisement board and get advice from their expertise by holding meetings like these, where I attempt to bridge the gap between the old financial gurus and the changes I want to enact to ensure that my company is relevant and keeping up with the changes of society.
Besides, Knight Enterprises has way too many moving pieces for me to manage everything on my own, which is why I have a team of people to help me do it. Unfortunately, that means that I have to endure these damn meetings and get my advisors on board when I want to move things in a new direction. Like right now.
“We shouldn’t be wasting resources by dabbling in things we have no business being in,” Pierson says, his stubby finger jabbing at a social media marketing strategy. “We don’t need any of this.”
“I disagree,” I say. “My group of personal researchers gave you the data. Knight Enterprises is failing in the eyes of public opinion. At worst, we’re seen as greedy, corporate grab-hands that buy up real estate left and right. At best, no one knows what the fuck we do. These sister companies we start-up will alleviate that. It’ll show that Knight Enterprises isn’t single-minded.”
“Yes, your so-called think tank,” Pierson says, nearly rolling his eyes.
I grit my teeth, imagining how public opinion would feel if I kicked him right in the ass. He can mock it all he wants, but that small group of brilliant minds that I formed come up with some amazing ideas, some of which I presented today. I know in my gut that they’ll be key in moving my company forward. And that goal is very important to me. I want Knight Enterprises to continue to be successful years—decades—down the line. I want it set up so that my successors can reap the benefits of my vision.
The fact of the matter is, while Knight Enterprises is successful, we’re old news with old ideas from when my grandfather and father created this business.
But I’ve been in charge for three years now, since my father passed away, and I finally have enough experience and a handle on things to start making some changes with confidence. But old board members are intent on stopping these changes from happening. Fortunately for me, the board is strictly advisory. I don’t have to gain their votes to make a decision. I do, however, prefer to get everyone on board with my ideas. I’ve found it creates smoother transitions.
The things I presented today are just the beginning. Things we can slowly build or just dip our feet into to feel out the response. A new trendy restaurant venture, a clean living construction company, a dating app, security startups, even some things in artificial intelligence and robotics. They’re not our norm by any means, and some of them are a bit risky, but they have excellent potential and could put Knight Enterprises on an entirely new map.
“Knight Enterprises should continue to focus on what we’re successful at. If we waste resources on some of these things, we could lose millions.”
I cut him off. “You’re basing those asinine projections on guesses and misknowledge,” I tell him before he can continue to make the rest of the board nervous. “Despite some of these ventures being more risk-driven, they’re also fiscally opportunistic. You would know that if you’d take a minute to read the research in the report in front of you,” I tell him pointedly as I point at the projection screen behind me. “In today’s technological climate, we need to keep things forward-thinking. Even if we lose some money at start up, we have plenty of other profitable businesses to make up for it.”
Pierson shakes his head and starts arguing about some of the information in the binders that my personal team worked on for today’s presentation. Bored, I glance over at Jim Harvey, my VP and best friend. Harvey is blonde, amiable, and annoyingly likable. Everybody